Tag: praying

Condemning All Violence.


“Dallas sniper attack: 5 officers killed, suspect identified”

http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/08/us/philando-castile-alton-sterling-protests/index.html


Absolutely horrified by the events in Dallas. Any and all violence must be condemned. Praying for both protestors and the police.

Police Chief David Brown: “He wanted to kill officers, and he expressed killing white people, he expressed killing white officers, he expressed anger for Black Lives Matter. None of that makes sense.” The sniper had pure hate for every side of the discussion.

Saying “eye for an eye makes the whole world blind” or “don’t fight fire with fire” assumes protesters did this. They didn’t. The sniper expressed hate for both whites and blacks. Don’t buy into it.

— J.S.

Where Is Justice?

When horrible things happen, we instantly feel the brokenness of a fallen, hostile, upside-down world.

Something deep inside us cries out for justice, and it points to a deeper human truth about the way we are made.

We see a sad, stark reality in contrast with a perfect ideal.

Justice is all about righting the wrong and making sure everyone pays.  We don’t like to talk about that until we see the worst a human can do.

I don’t mean to use tragedy as a platform or talking point.  We can’t explain away everything as God’s Will or saying “it’s society’s fault.“  No one should offer a theological reason about how this has a “higher purpose,” because even if it did, we’d be pretentious to say so.

Simply: something has been wrong with the human race since the beginning of time, and we all know it.  We are free to say: this sucks, and it’s infuriating.

Continue reading “Where Is Justice?” →

Quick To Fight, Quick To Forgive



When tragedy occurs, we are often too quick to fight or too quick to forgive.

When we are hasty to fight, we allow rage to blind our vision.  This is understandable, but unchecked will lead to bloodlust and xenophobia and too many assumptions of the facts. 

When we jump to forgiveness, we are trying to free our hearts of bitterness.  This is understandable, but unchecked will lead to a bypass of justice and become insensitive to the hurting.

There’s a time to be angry, to shake a fist, to attack evil and defend the weak.  It’s right to hate injustice.

There’s also a time to extend pardon, to pray for enemies, to hope for better and wipe the slate clean.  It’s how we rebuild for tomorrow.

God will finish this story both ways.  We don’t need to force one on the other.  If we try: we will forfeit both.  Only God can hold this equally in tension, and only He is righteously infuriated with a tender grace.

One day, this broken world will be made right.  God will unroll His love and justice on a people waiting for both, and the things that don’t make sense will be answered somehow. 

Until then: we fight.  Until then: we forgive.


— J.S.